The Crack in the Cosmic Code
by Leilyra
Summary: LOTR Matrix Xover - Imagination Becomes Reality Bringing LOTR Characters to Life within the Matrix. R&R Please. This aint easy to do! OCC
1. Pings World Chatter

DISclaimer: I do not Own LOTR or MATRIX. They are owned by others, not me. I do not own any Agents, and, again, I would be a happy girl if I did. Also, I do not own any elf such as Legolas, or Elrond * in my dreams * or Gandalf or Sauron or the One Ring, though I do own Vilya, but not the 'real' one and not the concept, just the cheap imitation I wear when I am feeling very Hugo-ish.  
  
I DO own this Story and JessiLee AKA EloopE and Ping. I own Giz. I own Mom aka Kat (Jacqueline Isabella Katarina Lee). I own EHS (Elite Hackers Society).  
  
I apologize for the language but heck, it happens, what can I say.  
  
RATED R for BAD language and eventually naughty nookie scenes which you should not read.. Cause they are mine, my precious, and we wants them (Hugo that is)...  
  
This is my attempt at a LOTR / Matrix Crossover  
  
**************************************************************************** ******  
  
She got off the bus and ran up the three flights of stairs to the apartment. Glancing at her watch as she logged on. 3:10 PM. Two hours till mom got home. Not enough time.  
  
Something had gone terribly wrong lately. Three times in the last month her computer had crashed while she was accessing data on the Lord of the Rings. No doubt her all time favorite book, but only one of many books she loved and was not able to find on-line anymore. It wasn't even that the computer crashed, it crashed and burned.  
  
Mom had made her promise not to use the computer. She did not want to call dad again and have him come over again and fix the 'damn' thing again. Mom would be perfectly happy if she never saw dad again, but he was an unfortunate circumstance of her life that would not go away.  
  
JessiLee was the offspring of these two complete opposites. Dad was a control freak and a computer geek. He liked everything in his little computer world to be neat and orderly, every computer to be set up perfectly, everything to be consistent. Of course in his 'real' world everything was always a mess. He left whatever he had in his hand on the nearest table and would find it again the next day or week or year. He was a slob. Hygiene and consideration for other humans was outside his realm of understanding. But he was, without a doubt, a computer genius. Any kind of gadget really, not just computers, he could figure out and fix. He could, but he didn't do it all that often, and never for mom while they were married. Now he would fix her computer when she asked, just to prove he was a 'great guy' and it was a big mistake for her to leave.  
  
Mom, on the other hand, was an artist. She loved to paint, sew, cook, dance, draw and write. Most of all she loved to write. Her imagination would run wild at times, weaving intricate tales of people and places and fantasy characters. Mom told her so many bedtime stories and read to her so often that by the time she was four she was reading.  
  
The really strange thing was that mom was the one who was neat and clean and tidy. She liked her 'real' world to be orderly, but her mind was always somewhere else. She loved to be around people too, where as dad was a computer machine kind of guy and didn't do well with humans, mostly because he wanted to control them like he did his machines and that didn't play well with most humans. Mom played music all the time and loved to dance, dad would watch TV or work on computers. They had nothing in common except her, and that seemed like an improbable miracle. She was a mixture of two complete opposites and she found that she loved the computer world, and loved to be creative within it.  
  
So she would try again to access some books or book facts or even some character profiles from the network. She loved reading more than almost anything else. By the time she was in third grade she had finished most of the works of C.S. Lewis and by the time she finished fifth grade she had read the complete works of J.R.R. Tolkien and the majority of the books written by Anne McCaffrey, and John Grisham. Any book that involved mystery or fantasy or intrigue was a welcome addition to her library, but her library had 'stolen' one day and the online world was all she had. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was her favorite by far. She read it once a year, every year, for the last seven years. She wore her cheap imitation 'One Ring' on a silver chain around her neck. She was terminally in love with Legolas.  
  
But now she had less than two hours to do her searches before mom came home and she didn't want to waste that precious time. Do now, think later, that was her motto. She signed on as ELoopE, the computer name her mom gave her. Mom said it suited her perfectly because if you looked up "Eternal Loop", it would send you to see "Loop Eternal" and there it would send you to see "Eternal Loop". Somehow within her strange sense of humor mom felt this described her perfectly, always going around in circles and never seeming to quite get it.  
  
Of course mom meant it in only the most whimsical kind of way. Mom knew better than anyone the intellect and creativity held within her tiny frame. Mom was so proud when she had scored so high on her SATs that she qualified for Harvard, but of course, she was only 12 at the time so they wouldn't accept her.  
  
Now at 17 she went to the public high school instead where she spent most of her time flirting with boys and irritating teachers. She didn't get too involved at school, even though mom pushed her to. She did the minimum required, got pretty poor grades, even though she was capable of so much more. She just didn't care. She only wanted to be at the computer, chat with her 'friends', update her webpage and read and write fantasy fiction. But her computer kept crashing and when it did work she couldn't find anything she wanted.  
  
She typed in "Lord of the Rings"  
  
'File not found' was the response.  
  
"Damn, oh darn." She needed to watch her language, mom tended to swear but didn't think she should.  
  
"How could everything just disappear? I've been reading that book since I was ten, I know it exists." She tried several more searches using words like Tolkien, Lord, Fellowship and Hobbit. Nothing but the 'file not found' response she had learned to hate.  
  
So she went in the back door with her other computer name, the one given to her by the EHS, the Elite Hacker Society. The unique group of computer programmers that knew something was amiss in the world they lived in, and the computer was the key to uncovering it. She signed in as "Ping".  
  
Searching again she was careful not to abuse her privilege as a member of this special group of creative intellectuals. She was the youngest and newest member and knew she must be careful and very secretive. Even mom, her best friend and confidant, knew nothing of this world.  
  
"Ping!"  
  
"Hey Giz, what's up?"  
  
"You looking for books again?"  
  
"Yep, can't find any. Something is really wrong with a world when the books go away."  
  
"We've been looking into that. Seems the 'machine' has been deleting them. There has been some kind of weird disturbances in various parts of the world and they seem to be in places like libraries and book clubs."  
  
"I don't get that. How could a book cause a disturbance, I mean, it's just a book right?"  
  
"Ok, we think it's somehow related to that phenomena where you have a 'reality/dream'. A déjà vu."  
  
"I love when that happens."  
  
"Ping, you are weird."  
  
"No, it's cool, like an out of body experience. Do you ever think you can just like, walk walls or something, and then feel like you did, and then wake up? And it all seems so real. Sometimes the world we live in is just too cold and boring. I would much rather live in Middle Earth or someplace like that. The Silmarillion maybe."  
  
"Ping, you let your imagination control too much of your thought processes."  
  
"Maybe that's the key Giz, maybe that's why the books are going away. Think about it, if books spark creative imaginative thought processes and they are causing atmospheric disturbances then perhaps there is a direct connection between the thought processes and the atmosphere."  
  
"Ping, you scare me."  
  
"Think about it Giz, maybe I am right. I am a fucking child genius you know, a perfect blend of two totally imperfect people. Maybe there is something to my idea. But even if there isn't, could you PLEASE help me find some books! I can't live in the real world much longer, I will lose my mind, and lately my mothers stories are all, shall we say, a bit pervy for me. I love her and all, but she's got it bad."  
  
"Ping, I will send you some links, but don't count on them working again tomorrow. No sooner do we find some of the books, they disappear again. Try these."  
  
Ping went directly to the sites Giz sent her and immediately began to download them onto good old-fashioned high-density 3.25" disks. Of course burning them onto a CD would be a hell of a lot faster, but this way she could slip them into her jeans pocket and no one would be the wiser.  
  
"Everything Legolas first," she commented to herself out loud. "Whoa" she jumped out of her chair, "what the hell was that?" A loud thump sounded as if it had come from her bedroom. "Calm down Jess, you can see what it is in a minute, you know you live in the worlds loudest and cheapest apartment complex." She talked to herself quite a bit, especially when she was alone. She tended to get lonely, which was one of many reasons she enjoyed her imaginary world so much, she was never alone there.  
  
"Get the data, now, before it goes away again" She urged herself on convincing herself not to be freaked out by the noise she had heard. "See, all quiet now, don't waste time" She glanced at her watch, 4:15 PM, less than an hour. She quickly swapped disks. She had to finish and get off before mom got home. She had been banned from using the computer till her grades improved and also, mom was tired of the crashes.  
  
"OK, for you mom, I'll get everything Elrond." She entered the keystrokes to download the data when she heard another loud thump. "Ignore it." She whispered to herself. "Now some Gandalf magic." A new diskette, more keystrokes, another room shaking thump. She shuddered, she felt like the world was trying to distract her from her goal, get the data before it disappeared forever. She switched disks yet again, "Some Sauron, cause what good is a story without some fun evil" the lights flickered in the room. "Shit, not another power outage. Geez, I better hurry up. What next? The ring of course." She hurriedly swapped disks and entered some quick keystrokes when she her a cling clang sound bounce from her desk to the floor. She looked down. There on the floor by her feet was her ring. She grabbed the chain around her neck, no, it was still there, hanging from the chain as it had been for the last seven years. She picked up the ring from the floor. It looked exactly like hers, except, maybe a bit shinier. "Oh maybe mom got me a new one." she thought out loud again. She slipped it into her pocket and popped the disk out of the drive.  
  
"Now, who's next?" she asked herself. "Aragorn or Galadriel?"  
  
The lights dimmed again and then her computer started making strange sounds. She tried to log off quickly but those green flashes of light that had preceded her last three computer blow-ups were flickering on the screen again. "Oh no, Shit, Don't do that, Not now, I want to get the rest of the characters first, Oh Shit, Mom is gonna kill me."  
  
She tried desperately to log off but it was too late. The screen flickered and scrolled massive amounts of green data and then the computer started sparking. The screen went blank as black smoke rolled out of the back of the computer where the power fan had once been humming along. "Shit shit shit! Mom is gonna fucking kill me."  
  
"Why am I gonna fucking kill you? And why are you talking like a fucking truck driver?"  
  
"Mom!" She spun and saw her standing there, smiling at her. "Hi mom! How was your day?"  
  
"Nice try Jess. What did you do this time? And do you always talk like that? Or is that a special way you communicate with yourself when I'm not home."  
  
"Sorry mom."  
  
"Well, are you going to tell me what I am going to be mad about? Or should I just guess. Let me see, it has something to do with a computer that is now filling my apartment with nasty black smoke and the fact that this time YOU are going to call your dad if you want it fixed."  
  
"Sorry mom."  
  
"You said you would not use it until I got home."  
  
"I know, but I was bored."  
  
"Ever hear of homework?"  
  
"Boring!"  
  
"Jess, for a child genius, you sure are lazy."  
  
"No, not lazy, just easily bored mom. School is too full of facts and not enough fiction. Used to be we would read interesting books, now it's all just boring crap, uh crud."  
  
"You know, I don't care. I want you to get good grades so you can go to a good college and get a good job and be able to take care of yourself."  
  
"Can't wait to get rid of me huh?" She teased.  
  
"Very funny. Now, what did you make for dinner?"  
  
"Uh, sorry mom, I've been kind of busy."  
  
"I see that." She approached the computer and waved the black smoke away. "You really did it this time didn't you?"  
  
"I'll call dad."  
  
"Damn right, and make sure he comes over when I am NOT here. Better yet, do NOT call your dad to have that fixed. I can live without it and you need to live without it. You need to start doing some school work and make some real life friends."  
  
"I have lots of friends."  
  
"I mean friends you actually do things with, outside of school. You need to expand your horizons."  
  
"My horizons are fine." Jess headed to her bedroom.  
  
"No you don't. You don't get to make a mess, act like a spoiled brat and stomp away. You can help me make dinner."  
  
"Fine."  
  
**************************************************************************** ******  
  
Online Chatter...  
  
**************************************************************************** ******  
  
"Right now, we're inside a computer program?"  
  
"Is it really so hard to believe?"  
  
"This isn't real?"  
  
"What is real? How do you define real?  
  
If you're talking about your senses, what you feel,  
  
taste, smell, or see, then all you're talking about  
  
are electrical signals interpreted by your brain."  
  
- Neo's introduction to the Matrix by Morpheus  
  
***********************************************************************  
  
"We have a new one, her name is Ping."  
  
"Is she ready?"  
  
"No, but she is unique. She seems to have uncovered some unexpected byproducts of living within the Matrix."  
  
"Is she dangerous?"  
  
"Not yet. But we will have to recruit her before they get to her."  
  
"Are they on to her yet?"  
  
"No, there seems to be massive unrest in the world. Major disturbances. They are constantly trying to resolve those program anomalies."  
  
"Do we know what they are, what is causing them?"  
  
"Ping seems to have discovered its origin."  
  
"What?"  
  
"She suggested that it is the imagination of creative people such as herself with the intellect and understanding of computer science that is causing the disturbances."  
  
"Again?"  
  
"Basically, they live in an imaginary world, what is real to them is based on how they interpret the signals their brains receive. She has linked that to the imaginative power of the human race."  
  
"Go on"  
  
"She spends so much time in her imaginary world that is directly linked to computers and books that it is becoming 'real' to her. Her theory is this is happening all over the world. On-line libraries, books, Fan fiction, and more, are all feeding this great mind-swell and it is creating 'living' versions of the books."  
  
"If I understand what you are saying, the books or characters from the books are becoming real because of the imaginations of the humans living within the Matrix?"  
  
"Not yet, but for people like her, people who have a grasp that they are not living in a 'real' world, yes, it can happen, it may have happened already. The disturbances are the electrical impulses caused by the conflict between the program to define reality and the humans desire to alter it."  
  
"So we are closer than we had hoped?"  
  
"Well, the machine seems to be on this too. Books are disappearing. Fiction is no longer available in schools. On-line stories and creative sites are constantly being deleted. The EHS keeps finding more and recreating them, reloading them, but they disappear quickly again."  
  
"What can we do?"  
  
"Wait and see. The EHS is busy working with Ping on getting the systems downloaded, but her computer has been zapped by the program. She is on her fourth computer in as many weeks."  
  
"Should we just go get her now?"  
  
"We have no way to connect with her. We have to wait, until she is online again. The EHS wants to help but cannot contact her without risking revealing her connection to them."  
  
"Who is her contact?"  
  
"Giz"  
  
"Giz? Was that a wise choice?"  
  
"The EHS functions independently, you know that."  
  
"But Giz is from Zion and doesn't really understand the human condition as it exists in the Matrix."  
  
"Giz has made the connection with Ping. This is how it will remain. Until Ping is online again, there will be no further contact. But our sources tell us something very unusual happened before the system shut her down. We hope to send someone in to find out, but we have to go through EHS since we don't know Pings Matrix identity. Only Giz does."  
  
"In other words, unless she figures it out on her own, we're screwed." 


	2. Her Theory

"Thanks for dinner mom."  
  
"Yeah, your welcome. Tomorrow YOU cook, got it?"  
  
"Well, you don't have to worry about me wasting my time on the computer do you?"  
  
"No, and I don't have to worry about my latest story either, do I? Because from the looks of that machine, it's long gone."  
  
"Sorry mom. Really. I love your stories, when they don't get too weird. I wouldn't trash them on purpose."  
  
"I know, I think I will go back to the old fashioned way, writing on paper with a pencil."  
  
"You still keep your journal don't you?"  
  
"Not that it's any of your business, but yes, I do. And I had the good sense to print out most of my stories before you trashed yet another computer. What do you do to them anyway?"  
  
"Mom, I have no idea." She patted the five diskettes she had in her back pocket. They were a little uncomfortable and she wanted to put them away in her room before her mom asked her about them. "I guess I'll go do some boring homework now."  
  
"Praise be! You actually do homework?"  
  
"Cute mom, you are just too cute."  
  
"Why thank you darling, I always said you got your good looks from me."  
  
Quietly she slipped down the hallway glancing at the computer that still had some smoke lingering out of it. Opening her door she looked back to see if her mom was watching her. She tripped and fell flat on her face.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"Nothing mom, you know how graceful I am."  
  
She stood up, looked to see what she had tripped over and then screamed.  
  
"What is it?" Her mom raced down to her room and looked around. She saw people lying on the floor. "Holy shit!"  
  
"Mom, I swear, I have no idea." Her eyes were wide and her face pale as a ghost. Terrified as she was, though, she was also fascinated by the beings on her floor. She began to bend down to look at the blonde one.  
  
"Okay, Jess, let's get out of here, quickly and quietly, and call the police."  
  
"No mom, wait, look at them. We can't call the police. I think I know who they are."  
  
She grabbed JessiLee's arm and dragged her out of the room past the bodies on the floor and into the hallway. She shut the door. "What are you talking about?" She whispered harshly.  
  
"Mom, who do they look like?"  
  
"Hell if I know! Do you know them?"  
  
"I think they are from the Lord of the Rings."  
  
"Okay Jess, you have completely lost it. The Lord of the Rings is a book, not a reality. You need help and we need to get out of here, now." She dragged her down the hall and to the front door.  
  
"Mom, wait, just listen to me. I can't explain it, but do you trust me?"  
  
"What?" She stopped short of leaving the apartment.  
  
"Do you trust me? C'mon mom, we are pretty close and always have been. You need to trust me on this. I've been on to something sort of weird."  
  
"On something? Like drugs?"  
  
"No mom, on TO something. It's nearly impossible to explain if you don't understand it and even when you kind of have an inkling about it, it doesn't make sense, but I really do think I know what happened, I just don't know how to 'un-happen' it."  
  
"Are we in danger?"  
  
"No mom, well maybe, but not from them in there."  
  
"Okay, I am going to trust you. Who are they?"  
  
"I think, but am not sure, but I think they are Legolas and Gandalf."  
  
"Okay, I'll go with your idea here, why would Legolas and Gandalf be in your bedroom?"  
  
"I downloaded them."  
  
"Jess, you lost me. Are these some friends of yours from school dressed up for a play or something? Are you messing with me again? You know I love your practical jokes but I think you might have crossed a line here."  
  
"Mom, please, I know it makes no sense, but they are the 'real' Legolas and Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings book. I was trying to download character information when the computer blew up. Mom, where are all our books?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Our books, what happened to all our books?"  
  
"As far as I know they were stolen when our apartment was burglarized."  
  
"Ok, but why didn't they take anything else, like our TV or something?"  
  
"We have been through this before. When the library was bombed, books suddenly became a hot commodity."  
  
"Why was the library bombed?"  
  
"JessiLee. Quit asking me questions to lead me to your point. You know I hate that game. Tell me what you think happened."  
  
"I will mom, but keep an open mind."  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Gandalf stood over Legolas staring at him, willing him to wake up.  
  
His eyes fluttered open and focused on Gandalf first, and then the ceiling fan. He leapt up and looked around like a cornered fox.  
  
"Legolas, calm down."  
  
"Where are we Gandalf?"  
  
"I am not sure, but we aren't in Middle-Earth anymore, that I do know."  
  
Legolas nimbly jumped onto the bed and bounced a little. "Strange."  
  
"Yes, there seem to be many strange things in this place. Look here." He led Legolas to the window.  
  
Legolas looked out and then backed up quickly as if he thought he might fall. He fell backwards over a big stuffed donkey. Picking himself up acting as if nothing had happened his eyes darted around the room again.  
  
"Calm down Legolas. I am here with you. We will resolve this strange situation and return to Middle Earth. I have been in worse places than this."  
  
Legolas picked up the stuffed donkey and looked at its big sad eyes. "What have they done to this creature?"  
  
Gandalf took the donkey from Legolas who looked as if he might just cry. "It is not real." He said reassuringly and patted Legolas on the shoulder. "Come, if we are to find out what is on the other side of this door, we must open it."  
  
"Gandalf, I will follow you, but is that wise? It could be great evil there. I do not feel good about any of this."  
  
"Nor do I Legolas, but right now it appears that only you and I are here, and we need to find out where 'here' is so we can return to where we belong." Gandalf carefully approached the door waving his staff in front of it and mumbling some incomprehensible words. Nothing happened. He took the knob in his hand and turned it ever so slowly and opened the door.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
She studied her little girl. Keep an open mind. Okay, that seemed like a reasonable request in most circumstances, but this child had two full grown men in her bedroom and she had no plausible explanation for why.  
  
Still, she had always been a good girl. Honest, forthright, gentle, kind and fun loving. How she had turned out to be such a decent human being was beyond her. Her upbringing was, to put it lightly, screwed up. Hell, look up the word dysfunctional in the dictionary and a picture of the three of them would likely be the best definition. Then again, Jess had been acting really strange lately, stranger than usual, but she had chalked it up to her being a creative person, not having lost it, but now, well, she should at least hear her out.  
  
"Jess, I will keep an open mind, I will trust you on this, but you better be honest with me here okay, because I am really worried about you and this whole situation." Her voice gave away the uncertainty she felt. Scared was an understatement. Maybe she had not turned out so well as she believed, maybe the girl had gone over the edge.  
  
"Mom, we live a world that is maybe not what we think it is, well, no, it is only what we think it is, oh geez, how do I explain this. I believe that this is all kind of like a dream and we are not really here, or maybe we are here but not like we think we are."  
  
"Jess, honey, I love you, and I am scared for you right now." Once again her voice trembled slightly and her eyes misted.  
  
"Mom, you said you would keep an open mind. I do not know how to help you understand this. Let's see. Okay. I will start with a secret." She took a deep breath and continued. "I have an alternate personality."  
  
"Okay that's it! We are out of here."  
  
"No, mom, listen, not a real personality, a cyber one."  
  
"Jess, please."  
  
"Okay, just let me finish. Don't interrupt no matter how weird it all sounds. I have a login right? My name is EloopE. You gave me that name. Well there is a whole world of people out there in the computer land and they gave me a different name. I go by that name sometimes. And they are different, not like us, not unlike us either." She stopped and stared at her fingers for a few minutes while taking a deep breath. Her mom sat watching her obviously confused and concerned.  
  
"I think the world we live in is maybe like a virtual world, like a dream world, but I don't really understand it. It definitely has something to do with computers but whenever I feel like I might be getting my mind wrapped around it, I get zapped. But, okay, I think that since all reality is only what we believe it is, and I have spent so much time thinking about, putting my mind on, however you want to say it, the Lord of the Rings and the characters there, they have become 'real' to me and therefore my mind made them real. I think that's why the books are disappearing and the libraries are being bombed. Too many people are letting the their minds make things real and, oh, I don't know, just maybe whatever is out there doesn't like it."  
  
"JessiLee, that is the scariest thing I have ever heard."  
  
"I know mom, I'm scared too, but I think I 'thought' Legolas and Gandalf into our reality, or maybe I downloaded them into our world, and I don't know what else I may have done, but the idea scares me."  
  
"What else did you download?" Her voice betrayed her fear and concern for her daughter's safety and sanity.  
  
"Well, the biggest problem I see is possibly," she paused nervously, "Sauron."  
  
"Oh shit."  
  
"Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking too."  
  
"So if I am to believe this, which I don't think I can, because I don't understand it, you are suggesting that we are not 'real' in a physical sense, only in our minds. Which I don't quite get, because then how would we know each other? But okay, I will stay with your theory that all this is in 'someone's' control though we don't know who that 'someone' is and that 'someone' is losing control because we are thinking too much and letting our creativity and imaginations carry us away?"  
  
"Right."  
  
"Okay, so to continue with this interesting theory of yours, you made some of the Lord of the Rings characters 'real' by bringing them into our world through the computer?"  
  
"Something like that mom, really, I don't understand HOW it happened only that somehow it's all connected."  
  
"And then you tell me, oh by the way mom, if my theory is correct, we are in deep kimshee because I happened to decide to download the most evil being on middle-earth, Sauron."  
  
"Yeah, kind of like that mom, but be glad I didn't download Melkor."  
  
"Oh yes, so thankful am I for that!" she added sarcastically "And now I am expected to deal with the fact that my world is not real, my daughter is making her fantasy characters into reality in my not real world and Sauron is out there somewhere, while Legolas and Gandalf are sleeping in her bedroom."  
  
"Kind of crazy huh? But it works."  
  
They both turned and looked toward her room. There was suddenly a loud crashing sound in there. Jess started to see what happened but her mom grabbed her arm and kept her back. "We are here, by the door, so we can escape quickly if we need to. Let's just wait and see for a minute. If any of your wild theory is true, we will know soon enough, if it is not, then we can get out fast." 


	3. Destruction and Discovery

'Resources are being drained at an exponential rate.'  
  
'Destroy the building.'  
  
'They may become suspicious if their world does not appear as it should. Books have been a part of their existence for thousands of years.'  
  
'Destroy the fiction section. Allow them to maintain the historical data.'  
  
Agents Smith Jones and Brown entered the Harold T. Washington memorial library. It was never dark in Chicago, but as this city went, it was a reasonably quiet and dark night. The skies were overcast, no stars or moon were visible and the misty fog from the lake settled over the city shrouding it in a grey mask.  
  
They headed directly for the adult fiction section. The children's books were of no concern. No one ever believed the children when they thought their imaginary friends were real, so it didn't matter what they read. Besides, children were always imagining things regardless of books.  
  
Smith led the way through the aisles. With each touch another book was annihilated. "Dust to dust" he thought, "though humans were neither anymore. The books were the most human things left."  
  
Jones trailed behind Smith collecting the mess in a bag. Brown moved the bags quickly and quietly out to the trash bins in the back of the building. When they had completed the fiction section they moved on to the non- fiction, destroying books that referred to authors that wrote fiction and historical events that were affected by fiction. The selections left were sparse.  
  
"Agent Smith, should we leave this as empty as it is?"  
  
"No, we will fill it with magazines and pornography. No one ever believes any of that stuff anyway."  
  
"What about the children's section?"  
  
"Do not concern yourself with that. We have developed several new PBS shows that will help them learn all about their 'history' in fun and interesting ways."  
  
"Television, yes, the key to destroying the imagination of a generation."  
  
Quickly the library was transformed into a media wasteland. Empty meaningless books and magazines about beauty and relationships filled the shelves that had once graced classic novels of adventure, romance, hate, love, death and life. Television screens were installed throughout the building with cable hookup to MMTV only. The Matrix Media TV station that aired important documentaries and educational television, according to it's own purpose.  
  
The Agents left the building quietly as they had entered it. They slipped off into the dark night, disappearing in the grey mist.  
  
****************************************************************  
  
Gandalf bravely yanked the door open. A tennis racquet and several stuffed animals as well as some CD's fell out and hit the ground with a crash. Stepping over the stuffed creatures Gandalf entered the strange little room filled with fabric and various objects that he had never seen the likes of before.  
  
"What is all this?" Legolas asked examining the items on the floor.  
  
"Shhhh" Gandalf hushed Legolas. He used his staff to push aside the fabric which swung from metal objects connected to a bar. Poking into the fabric he explored the back wall of the odd little room. "It seems this is a storage area of some sort."  
  
"Are there weapons? Or any other items of use?" Legolas asked as he examined a CD that had fallen out of the case. He threw it like a Frisbee, knocking several glass animals off a shelf and sending them to the floor shattering.  
  
"Why don't you just announce we are here Legolas? Perhaps there are some orcs out there that need to find us more quickly." Gandalf scolded Legolas with a warning glare.  
  
Legolas put down the tennis racquet and sat sheepishly on the bed, bouncing slightly.  
  
Gandalf's staff got tangled up in a sheer handkerchief style dress. Nothing she wore on a regular basis, one of her favorite retro outfits. Frustrated he yanked the staff out taking with it the periwinkle flowered fabric, hanger and bar, bringing the whole mess crashing down on the floor into a tangled heap. Legolas laughed out loud.  
  
Gandalf spun and glared at him. Legolas looked away sheepishly again. Gandalf loosed his staff and stepped over the mess he had created which was piled atop the mess that already existed. Handing Legolas the staff, with a severe warning glance, he pushed up his sleeves and threw his body into trying to close the closet door, but it would not be returned to it's state of nearly bursting, it had officially burst.  
  
Irritated he snatched his staff from Legolas and returned to the window as if contemplating that as a possible escape. Legolas did not like the window. He had no fear of heights and thoroughly enjoyed climbing a tree, but this was sheer, like a cliff, but without the usual footholds. Legolas did not like the way Gandalf was eyeing him either.  
  
"I will not go out there." Legolas stated firmly. Gandalf sighed and went to the other closed door. He examined the knob closely and carefully.  
  
****************************************************************  
  
"Mom, I can't stand it anymore, they're gonna trash everything of mine." She wrested her arm loose from her mother and ran to the hallway.  
  
"Wait for me, you are not going in there alone!" She ran after her catching up with her just as she threw the door open to a loud thunk and a terrible scream.  
  
Gandalf fell back with a loud thunk. The knob had caught him right in the eye. She charged through and stopped short when she saw Legolas perched on her bed with his bow fully drawn and the arrow aimed directly at her heart.  
  
Her mom ran in behind her and crashed into her sending her lurching forward and tripping over Gandalf. "Whoa there cutie! Don't be shooting us okay? Take it easy." She held up her hands while Legolas shifted his eyes and arrow between her and JessiLee.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"I'm Katarina, my friends call me Kat. She is my daughter, JessiLee," she said pointing to her daughter on the floor next to Gandalf, "We call her Jess. You can shoot me if you like, but don't hurt her okay? She may be the reason you are here and she may be your only way back."  
  
Gandalf rubbed his head and sat up. Staring at Jess he put out his hand. "Good to meet you miss. You are JessiLee of Katarina?"  
  
"What? Um, yeah, sure, okay, I can live with that, but just call me Jess."  
  
"Very well, Jess."  
  
She stood up and helped Gandalf up. "My name is Gandalf. I am often called Gandalf the Grey, and this young elf is my friend Legolas."  
  
"Yes, I know." Jess commented.  
  
"How do you know? What do you mean you know? Who are you that you know?" Legolas put down his bow and began pacing across the bed. "I was in Mirkwood, happily minding my business, listening to music and suddenly."  
  
"Slow down Legolas."  
  
He looked wildly at Gandalf. "I will take care of us Legolas, they will not harm us."  
  
Legolas sat down cross-legged on the bed and stared at Jess. "Tell me how I got here please."  
  
"I wish I could, but I don't really understand it. I will do what I can to help you get home though." She said hopefully. "You could stay for a little while?"  
  
"Jess, it would seem to me, that they have no choice but to stay a little while." Kat stated. "I guess you will need to contact your father and get him here to fix that damn computer. In the mean time it is quite late and I am very confused and tired. We need to find a place for these two to sleep tonight."  
  
Legolas leapt off the bed. "I do not wish to sleep."  
  
"Legolas, you can stay awake all night if you want, but I need to sleep and so does Jess. She has a long day tomorrow." She stepped over the mess in the room and headed out the door. "Come with me, now, please."  
  
They all followed her. "Jess," she said with a motherly tone and smile "you may go clean up that mess in your room and then go to bed."  
  
"Mom!" she began to protest but Gandalf held up his hand.  
  
"Young lady, you should obey your mother."  
  
"Great, I bring the great Wizard of Middle Earth to my living room and he tells me to listen to my mother. Why does that just figure?" She mumbled some other unpleasant comments and headed back to her room.  
  
"Okay, the quick tour is what you get. I'm tired." She pointed to the front door. "Do NOT go out that door, you will then be subject to the real world and frankly, I don't think you are ready for it, or it for you. Over here is the kitchen, this is a refrigerator. It has food in it, help yourselves if you get hungry, but try not to make too much of a mess. Down the hall is Jess's room, you've trashed that already, and then there's the bathroom, uh, I don't know if you'll need that. Hmmm, maybe you can figure that out yourselves, I'd rather not try to explain it. And that door at the end of the hall, that my new friends, is my bedroom, and I do not want anyone other than me in there."  
  
"Thank you very much for your hospitality Miss Katarina of."  
  
"Just call me Kat, much easier that way."  
  
"Very well, Kat. We appreciate your generosity. I will be sure to respect your privacy. I will sleep here on this couch as you have instructed. My young friend Legolas does not sleep much or often."  
  
Legolas had already found his way into the kitchen and was opening and closing the refrigerator, watching the light go on and off and putting his hand in it feeling the cold air.  
  
Kat rolled her eyes. "This is going to be interesting. Maybe this is one of those weird dreams I will wake up from and everything will be back to normal. I hope so."  
  
She walked down the hall to her room and glanced at her watch. After midnight and she had to be up in four hours for work. Crap.  
  
*************************************************************  
  
"Have we heard from Giz?"  
  
"Giz has been in contact, still no word on Ping. We are hoping she will get in contact with someone soon. There was another major problem in Chicago a while ago. The entire fiction section of the last library left standing was suddenly disintegrated, for a lack of a better term."  
  
"What caused it?"  
  
"The EHS reports that it was likely the work of AI."  
  
"What about the other disturbance?"  
  
"We have no report on that yet. Giz has suggested that it may have occurred in the same general area as the known address of Ping in the Matrix, but Giz won't give much information on that."  
  
"Trying to protect Ping?"  
  
"That is likely, though, with Giz there is no sure answer."  
  
*************************************************************  
  
Kat peeked in Jess's room on the way to her room. Lying on top of the covers sound asleep in the mess, still fully clothed, she let out a little snore. Making her way quietly through the mess she kissed her on the cheek and put a blanket over her. "Good night sweetie, I love you."  
  
She slipped out and into her room. Without turning on a light she quickly undressed and slid under the covers before screaming at the top of her lungs.  
  
Jess ran into the room and flipped on the light. "Mom!"  
  
Kat sat up buck-naked trying to pull the covers over herself. Elrond was sitting next to her obviously as shocked as she was.  
  
"Elrond!" Jess patted her back pocket. "When I said Elrond for my mom I didn't quite mean it that way." She muttered.  
  
"What Miss Jess?" Gandalf was standing behind her looking into the room, but not entering as he had promised to respect her privacy.  
  
"Geez Jess, what else didn't you tell me about, and could you get rid of these people so I can get dressed?"  
  
Jess turned to Gandalf and Legolas in the hallway. "Could you excuse my mom please, she needs to get dressed. Oh, and by the way, Elrond is here too."  
  
"Elrond! Lord Elrond. Thank the good elf. He will help us."  
  
Gandalf glared at Legolas. "I said I would take care of us."  
  
"Hey you two, listen up, we need all the help we can get here, and I don't think we should fight. Oh, and by the way, I kind of need to talk to you about something Gandalf. I think it might make things here just a bit more complicated." She patted the ring in her pocket and felt warmth travel through her hand and leg. "Oh crap."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Never mind, I'll tell you tomorrow ok? I think my mom is kind of freaked out right now and has enough to deal with. Maybe tomorrow my dad can fix my computer and we can fix this all right away."  
  
"Miss Jess, Jess, what is this computer you speak of and where is your father now? Does he not live here?"  
  
"Um, well, I'll explain tomorrow, but basically, my mom and dad do not live together and they are not married anymore but they were. The computer thing I'll explain another time. I really need some sleep."  
  
"You must check on your mother."  
  
"Naw, she can handle Elrond, it's Elrond I think we need to worry about." 


	4. Breakfast

'Excessive unusual disturbances in the software are being reported. Believed to be the center of the source of power failures and outages. Severe drain on energy causing minor malfunctions.'  
  
"Jones, access information on outages."  
  
"Smith, they seem to be northwest of Chicago."  
  
"Can you be more specific, Jones?" Smith asked irritated.  
  
"No sir."  
  
"I will investigate alone. There is limited power supply available. You will be an unnecessary drain."  
  
"And Agent Brown?" Jones asked dejectedly.  
  
"What part of ALONE do you not comprehend Agent Jones?"  
  
"Yes, sir. I understand." Compliantly Jones left, though clearly disgruntled.  
  
*************************************************************  
  
"Elrond, if you will please give me just a moment to cover myself, I will be happy to explain where you are and answer any other questions you have as best as I can." She stated as calmly as she could considering she felt like she was in the middle of a weird nightmare fantasy.  
  
"Very well."  
  
"Could you close your eyes, please?" Generally she was not shy and tended to be perhaps a bit too open minded about most things, but in this particular instance she found herself feeling quite embarrassed and based on the sudden heat in her cheeks and other various locations on her body she knew she must be blushing profusely.  
  
"As you wish."  
  
She watched him close his beautiful grey eyes. Elegantly he lifted his robed arm and covered his eyes with his long slender fingers. She was entranced. Every movement was like a dance. Graceful, sweeping, refined. He was even more beautiful in person than he was in her imagination. Un- fucking-believable was the word that came to mind, but of course that was totally inappropriate, so perhaps something more like perfect would suffice.  
  
She quickly donned her favorite jammies. A tee shirt with Pooh Bear on it and a pair of matching shorts. Over that she wore a thick fleecy robe. Quite unexpectedly she felt as if she couldn't cover herself enough, though she had always been somewhat shameless in her style. Dressing classy, but finding ways to subtly show off her best features was her specialty, but now she felt as if she should cover herself head to toe and leave nothing exposed. Vulnerable. She had not experienced that feeling since her childhood and was not enjoying its sudden return.  
  
She found a pair of heavy socks in her drawer and put those on as well. She couldn't help but stare at him, sitting there in her bed, like he was the king of everything. Back straight, breathing quietly and evenly, waiting patiently, like a dream. She wanted to capture this moment for all time, something about it was so surreal and yet so very perfect, and he was just so damned beautiful it made her want to cry.  
  
"Why can't you be real?" The sound of her own voice startled her. "Oh shit, did I say that out loud?"  
  
"Pardon me?"  
  
"I am so sorry." The heat returned to her cheeks and now she was beginning to perspire a little as well. "Um, I am covered now, if you like you can open your eyes."  
  
She watched him again, still in her daze, fascinated with his every movement. He pushed the covers off his legs and stood up and walked about the room. Although the room was quite large it abruptly felt very small with his commanding presence. Her eyes followed his every action, not trusting herself to speak, she waited for him to say or do something.  
  
Stopping across the room from her he examined a picture on the wall for a moment and then turned to face her. "You assured me that you would be kind enough to explain to me where I am and how I ended up here if I complied with your request to allow you time to make yourself presentable." His eyes traveled from her face to her feet and back up again. "It would be greatly appreciated if you would follow up on that at this time."  
  
Her mouth opened but her voice wouldn't catch. She put her hand on her throat as if she was trying to find the words that were lost in there somewhere.  
  
"I was perfectly able to hear and understand you before. Have you lost your voice now?" He approached her and reached his hand toward her throat. She backed up and fell over her glider's ottoman.  
  
"I will not hurt you" He assured her. His voice was soft and lilting.  
  
"Oh shit."  
  
"You said that before." A gentle smile played across his lips as he reached out to help her up. Taking his hand she felt herself blush again. His skin was soft as a rose petal and his presence made her feel awkward and insecure.  
  
A loud knock on the door caught their attention and they both turned. "Mom! Are you okay?"  
  
Kat took her hand away from Elrond's and swiftly went to the door and opened it. She had all but forgotten about the others in her apartment. Her mind was completely focused on the Halfelven hunk in her bedroom.  
  
"I'm fine."  
  
"Mom, are you warm enough?" she asked sarcastically.  
  
"Do you need something Jess?"  
  
"Mom, you are actually blushing! Ha, this was all worth it!"  
  
Kat took a deep breath and shot her daughter a seriously pissed off look. Gandalf and Legolas stood behind Jess now.  
  
"Master Elrond!" Gandalf exclaimed. "It is such a great pleasure to see you here."  
  
"Yes indeed Gandalf, and I am too pleased to see you, though I would like very much to know where 'here' is."  
  
Elrond made his way gingerly past the two ladies standing in the doorway and into the hallway. Legolas all but hugged him.  
  
"Legolas, I am pleased to see you as well my boy."  
  
"Lord Elrond. I was beginning to despair of ever seeing any of my people, yet you are here, as is Master Gandalf, so I feel sure all will yet be well."  
  
The three wandered down the hallway as if they owned the place and Kat and Jess just watched them dumbfounded. "I suppose I ought to call in to work eh?"  
  
"I think you just want to stay here and drool over Elrond."  
  
Kat gave Jess a little shove. "You are in so much trouble little girl."  
  
"I'll call dad. He'll fix the computer and then we can figure out how to send them back."  
  
"Jess, I still am totally confused as to what is going on, but I gotta say, if you were gonna make someone suddenly appear in my bedroom, I couldn't have made a better choice."  
  
"Mom, I gotta be totally honest with you, I don't get it either. I think maybe this is going to turn out to be one of those weird dream things where you wake up and go 'wow that was so real'."  
  
"Hmmm. I think that theory makes more sense than your last one."  
  
*************************************************************  
  
Jess picked up her phone after she found it somewhere in her bedroom and bravely made the call. "Dad?"  
  
"Hi JessiLee, How are you?"  
  
"Hi dad, I'm fine, how are you?"  
  
"I'm good JessiLee. But I've been sending you emails and IM-ing you and you have not responded. Is everything ok?"  
  
"That's kind of why I'm calling, cause, I kind of crashed the computer again."  
  
"Have your mom fix it."  
  
"She can't. I didn't just crash it, it was smoking and black stuff came out and sparking and stuff. Maybe I need a better surge protector."  
  
"How did you do that?"  
  
"I don't know dad, but I really really really really really need it fixed or a new one or something ok? Please please please? If I don't have a computer, how can we chat?"  
  
"The phone?"  
  
"But daaaaaad, you know how hard it is to have a good phone conversation with your schedule and mine. Puhleeeeez come and fix my peeuter, puhleeez?"  
  
"I'll just bring you a new one. I've been building one here with a new system where the processors have their own power supplies and cooling units. It's amazing. I'll open it up over there and show you and explain it to you."  
  
"Ok dad" She rolled her eyes. The last thing in the world she was interested in was the complexities of a motherboard, dual processors, power supplies, network cards, sound cards, new and improved device drivers or any of that crap. She hated all of it. Just plug it in and connect to the real world out there. Then she could have some fun, hacking into computers, writing stories, and developing programs that would let her access details on all kinds of fun and interesting stuff. She loved a good mystery and the network world provided lots of mysteries to unravel. But as to how the hardware worked. BORING.  
  
Oh well, it was the price she had to pay to get a new computer, and, she did love her dad and wanted to connect with him. He would not connect with her in her world, so it was up to her to make the effort. Mom had tried to explain that to her for years. Mom wanted her and dad to be close, but unfortunately she had been too angry with her dad to try. Now she really wanted to make the connection and her mom's advice made sense. Hoping against hope her dream was someday they would all get along again, or for the first time maybe, and dad would try to connect with them.  
  
"I love you dad"  
  
"I love me too." He said with a laugh and then added, "I love you too JessiLee. I'll be over in about an hour."  
  
"Thanks dad you are the best! See you then. Bye."  
  
"Bye."  
  
He promptly hung up. It sounded to her like he had another call come in. She looked at her watch. A little after nine, he said an hour, he might be there by noon. She looked around her room. "What a mess." She sighed. She went to the kitchen and grabbed a garbage bag, broom and dustpan and dragged them back to her room. She glanced at the three strangers talking quietly in her dining room. Good thing mom wanted a big apartment or they'd all be tripping over each other by now.  
  
***************************************************************  
  
"Did you call him Jess?"  
  
"Yep mom, he said he'd be here in an hour."  
  
"Good, thank you. Are you going to clean your room?"  
  
"Yep mom, it's a disaster in there. Even more than usual." She smiled.  
  
"Wow, I do live in a dream world."  
  
"Ha ha ha mom"  
  
She smiled at Jess and headed down the hall. She had called in to work and was dressed in jeans and a sweater. She headed for the kitchen. "What would you like to eat?"  
  
"Good morning Mistress Katarina." Gandalf smiled warmly at her.  
  
"Please call me Kat." She smiled back but opened the refrigerator and began removing large amounts of food. "Jess, do you want an omelet?" She shouted into the refrigerator.  
  
"Sure mom" She yelled back from her room. "Thanks."  
  
Elrond watched the odd exchange with a disapproving expression. Legolas joined Kat in the kitchen. "How does this work?" he was looking in the refrigerator again.  
  
"How?" She studied him. "I have no idea. I never thought about how, just glad that it does work. For me, you plug it into the wall, set the temperature and when it isn't working right you call the repair guy. That's how it works for me."  
  
"Plug it in?"  
  
"Oh Legolas, I've never even given thought to any of this. I'm so sorry. I imagine you all must be very confused and frustrated right now." Her voice was sympathetic and her eyes gave away the fact that it was just beginning to sink in how complicated the situation really was. "Let me fix you a good breakfast and then we can talk. I don't do well in the morning without some coffee in my system. I'm one of those old-fashioned moms that believes any problem is less complicated when good food goes with it."  
  
"May we be of assistance?" Gandalf had joined them in the kitchen.  
  
Kat looked up at him. His face was weathered and worn. His eyes, lost in his face, revealed some kind of deeper knowledge she didn't understand. She backed up slightly once again overwhelmed by the sense that he was a force to be reckoned with and she wasn't up for reckoning. She didn't really feel afraid of him, for she knew he was one of the good guys, she had practically memorized the books, but she did fear the situation and his power and his presence.  
  
"Maybe just Legolas helping me would be enough. The kitchen is rather small. I really am used to cooking alone, but I do appreciate the offer." She stammered out her thoughts that seemed incoherent to her. Legolas didn't intimidate her, but the other two did, and she wasn't used to that at all.  
  
"Very well, Master Elrond and I will continue to discuss our options and wait for nourishment. Thank you," he paused as if he just could not stand to say it "Kat."  
  
She smiled. "If you prefer you can call me Jacqueline. That is my given name. Jacqueline Isabella Katarina Lee. I think my parents wanted to make up for the short last name by giving me an excessively long first name. But please, no Isabella. Too many names wears me out."  
  
"Jacqueline, I will use that name. It is much more appropriate for you."  
  
She turned back to her work and handed Legolas a banana.  
  
"Thank you." He peeled it and ate it.  
  
"Okay Legolas. The next one I give you please peel and then cut up and put in that bowl there."  
  
Grinning he took all the fruit she had out and quickly chopped it into bite size pieces.  
  
"Wow, you could be a sushi chef"  
  
He looked at her quizzically.  
  
"I've just never seen someone cut up food that fast." She explained and then turned on the stove. He jumped back away from the flame. She quickly shut it off. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. This is our stove, it lights just by turning the knob here." She took his hand and showed him how to push it down and turn it to the 'light' mode. Once the flame kicked in, she led him through adjusting the height and then let him try it himself.  
  
"Interesting, how does it work?"  
  
"I just showed.." She stopped. "Once again Legolas, I have no idea how it works. I went to the store, picked the one I wanted and had the guy install it for me. Sorry, somehow I feel suddenly quite stupid."  
  
"You are not stupid." He stated it with such certainty that she felt like he knew something she didn't.  
  
"Why don't you take the plates and utensils out to the table and I will get the omelets cooked." Then she paused and said, "But first, want to cut up some other stuff for me?"  
  
"I would be happy to." He took the vegetables and cooked ham she pushed his way and quickly cubed all of it.  
  
"Amazing, you could do infomercials for knives. Everyone would buy them." She glanced at his face, "Of course everyone would buy just about anything you sold just because you were the one selling it."  
  
He cocked his head slightly and looked at her sweetly. "I do not understand what you are talking about, Kat, but I do feel that it was a compliment. Thank you."  
  
Grinning she shook her head at the incomprehensibility of the whole situation and went back to her cooking. She served them a huge breakfast of omelets, fruit salad, orange juice, ham, coffee, milk and muffins. Looking at the food she realized she cooked for ten people not five but she loved cooking so she didn't mind. Jess joined them and they ate quietly for a while.  
  
"Where are we?" Elrond stated abruptly.  
  
Jess and Kat exchanged glances. "We are in Schaumburg Illinois, a suburb just northwest of Chicago, in the United States of America, on the continent of North America. If my understanding of middle earth is even remotely clear, we are an ocean away from it, and several thousands of years away from it as well." Kat stated as matter-of-factly as she could.  
  
Elrond's eyes bore into her as she spoke. She had a hard time trying to put thoughts together when she was in the room with him, but when he stared at her she felt totally intimidated. She picked up her fork and pushed a strawberry around her plate. He put his hand on hers to stop her, as if it annoyed him. She looked up at him again and swallowed hard.  
  
"Jacqueline, what do you mean by several thousands of years away?" he asked her sternly.  
  
"Oh shit."  
  
He withdrew his hand and shook his head and then rubbed his temple as if he had a headache.  
  
"Hey mom, that's the same look you get when you are mad at me."  
  
Elrond smiled at Jess and resumed eating.  
  
Kat got up from the table and went to her room and shut the door. She sat on the bed and buried her face in her hands and cried. What the hell was going on? Nothing made any sense. Jess seemed willing to accept this entire bizarre situation with a grain of salt but she was the mom. She was supposed to be in charge and control and take care of her daughter. She wanted so badly to wake up and find out none of this was real and that she was just having some raging fever-induced hallucination, but she was scared to death that this might just be happening and if it was, what the hell did it all mean?  
  
Suddenly she felt very ill and ran into her bathroom and vomited. When she had emptied the contents of her stomach she flushed and undressed and turned the shower on to cold and climbed in. She sat on the tub floor while the cold water beat down on her and she cried. 


	5. One More Thing

A crack in the code. Some leak in the system. A glitch. Whatever it was let something REAL into the cosmic world and now, that real thing, was using energy at an astonishing rate. Crops were diminishing, more power was supplied, and more crops diminished. The code would be easily cracked wide open, completely destroyed soon.  
  
"We must find the source of the drain of power or the Matrix will be in danger of major malfunction."  
  
Smith your assignment; Find the crack in the code, identify the source of energy hemorrhage and resolve it.  
  
Smith walked assertively through the streets of Chicago. He had never lacked confidence, purpose or power, but now the power was weakening. As he approached the lake he felt a drain. "More power is necessary." His words slurred slightly. The Matrix provided him with more energy.  
  
********************************************************  
  
Eventually she shut off the water and climbed out of the tub. Drying herself off she wrapped her long hair in a towel and plopped it atop her head. She walked out of her bathroom into her bedroom to put on some fresh clothes.  
  
"Jacqueline."  
  
Startled she looked up to see Elrond staring at her, and she was once again naked, but this time in broad daylight. "Oh Shhhhhhhhhhh" she ran back into her bathroom and slammed the door shut. "it!" She climbed back in the tub and sat on the cold wet floor pulling her knees to her chest.  
  
Elrond knocked on the door.  
  
"Go away!"  
  
"Please Lady Jacqueline, I need to speak with you."  
  
"My name is Kat. I only gave Gandalf permission to use my other name. Now go away!"  
  
Leaning against the door between them Elrond continued. "Your daughter explained to me her thoughts on how we arrived here. Some inexplicable space and time travel concept. If it was not for the fact that I am indeed here, I would not have believed it was possible, however,"  
  
"Go away!" She shouted at the door while mulling over Jess's newest theory. It was her hope that none of this was real, it was all a bad dream and they really would go away.  
  
"As I see it." He continued undaunted, "we need to repair the machine ah" he paused "computer in order to return us to our proper place and time, which I dearly desire."  
  
"What part of Go Away do you not understand?" she screamed sarcastically at the door.  
  
He opened the door.  
  
Quickly she yanked the towel off her hair and covered herself with it. "Apparently you do not understand any part of it."  
  
"Lady Jacqueline!" The tone of his voice was so strong and stern it scared her. "You will not speak to me with such disrespect."  
  
That just pissed her off. "Listen here Mr. Elrond." She said angrily starting to stand up while keeping herself covered. "This is MY home and YOU are the guest." Putting a sarcastic emphasis on the word guest. "You will not tell me how or what I can or cannot say." Standing to face him, but still in the tub, she slipped on the wet floor. "Oh Shit." In that instant she had to choose between the humiliation of falling and the humiliation of being seen naked again. She chose and fell with a crash cracking her head against the wall on the way down but keeping herself fully covered with the towel. "Shit!" Feeling woozy she rubbed her head and then tenderly examined her hip that was beginning to bruise. "Shit!"  
  
"Lady Jacqueline, please explain to me the fascination you have with excrement."  
  
She looked up at him and blinked her eyes. A sound somewhere between a muffled laugh and a choked sob escaped her throat. Then she began to cry again.  
  
He reached down to touch her and she cringed back away from him.  
  
"I will not hurt you." He assured her again.  
  
Teary eyed she looked into his kind and ageless face. "I'm quite certain you will." She whispered and then pleaded with him. "Please, just leave me alone. Let me get dressed" She had reached the end of her tears and felt completely empty.  
  
Kat waited until she heard Elrond leave her bedroom and close the door before she moved again. Everything hurt. "Oh shit." She said, and then laughed remembering his comment and cringed from the pain of the laughter. She climbed out of the tub trying not to cry out from the pain. She had the usual urge to say shit but she knew the inevitable laugh that would follow would hurt. She crawled to her dresser and pulled out some sweats.  
  
The thought of even attempting to put on more than that made her hurt. She pulled her largest sweatshirt over her head, hoping it would hide the fact that she was not wearing a bra. She was certain she couldn't get one of those on right now. Standing slowly she forced her legs to cooperate enough to get into a pair of loose sweat pants. She tried to stretch. "Oh Shi" she laughed "damn him, he ruined my favorite line." Feeling dizzy and disoriented she leaned against her dresser and rubbed the back of her head. It was bleeding. "Jess" she yelled weakly.  
  
Jess ran down the hall sounding a lot like a herd of elephants and skidded into her mother's bedroom door stopping just short of crashing. "Should I come in?" she asked at the door.  
  
"Please" Kat replied weakly and somewhat irritated as well.  
  
Jess slipped into the room and then stared at her mom. "Mom! What happened?" panic rising in her voice she approached her mother and asked "Should I take you to the hospital?"  
  
"That sounds like a good idea" Kat replied half smiling, always trying to keep things light for Jess. "But you need to call your dad so he doesn't come over." Kat sat down on the floor and then lay down. Jess grabbed the towel and put it under her head. "I'll call an ambulance."  
  
Kat tried to argue but couldn't. Gandalf appeared at the door but didn't enter the room still respecting his promise to Kat. "What is the problem? Perhaps I can help?"  
  
"My mom," distraught she cried "she's hurt."  
  
Losing consciousness Kat closed her eyes and went pale.  
  
"I need to call 911."  
  
Elrond pushed past both of them and went to Kat. Kneeling beside her he stroked her head and gently whispered softly in Elvish to her. Her eyes fluttered slightly as she tried to focus on him. She sighed and closed them again resignedly. The bleeding stopped and almost immediately her color returned. "Go away please." She whimpered, "Let me die in peace."  
  
"You will not die today Lady Jacqueline" Elrond leaned over her and whispered in her ear "Sí are útyel nuruesse."  
  
Everyone else started suddenly with the loud knock on the front door. "Sh" Kat started to mumble but Elrond put his hand over her mouth.  
  
"Mom, dad is here." Jess said panicking.  
  
"JessiLee, you will work with your father to repair the machine. We will wait in here with your mother. I assure you I will not let her die." Elrond commanded her. "Go now, and open the door."  
  
"Okay" she nodded in a confused daze. She stepped out in the hallway and noticed the table full of food and dishes. "Quick, help me clean this up, he'll never believe all that was just for mom and me." She ran to the table but Gandalf held up his staff and said just a few words and the mess disappeared.  
  
"Cool" Jess whispered as she went to the front door. Gandalf and Legolas stepped into Kat's room and shut the door.  
  
"JESSILEE!" her dad was shouting in the hallway now knocking madly on the door. "Are you in there?"  
  
She ran wildly to the door and whipped it open. "Hi daddy!"  
  
"What took you so long? And why didn't you go to school today?"  
  
"Sorry dad."  
  
"What about school?" he asked again.  
  
"Uh, mom, mom is sick, so, I overslept, and I missed the bus." She paused and tried to think of some logical explanation. "And then I figured I'd just hang out here and help her out and make sure she was okay because she stayed home and you know she never does that unless she's like on her deathbed or something." She lied as fast as she could think.  
  
"Is she okay?" his concern was genuine.  
  
"Uh yeah, I think so, maybe it's the flu or something."  
  
"I should check on her."  
  
"No! I mean, no, dad she just fell asleep, and, yeah, um, she is really tired and I don't want to wake her up."  
  
"Okay JessiLee." He patted her shoulder, "Calm down. She'll be fine. Come help me bring up your new computer," he added with a smile. She grabbed her keys and followed him out. "We better use the elevator, it's huge!"  
  
****************************************************  
  
Kat opened her eyes again. Elrond Gandalf and Legolas were watching her. "Your still here?" she asked. She closed her eyes again.  
  
"Perhaps she would be better off in her bed?" Gandalf suggested looking at Elrond.  
  
"Perhaps." Elrond reluctantly agreed, picking her up and moving her. He laid her on the top of her bed and then put a blanket over her. He stroked her head tenderly where the wound had been.  
  
"What do you make of these paintings Master Elrond?" Gandalf asked examining the murals painted on her walls.  
  
Elrond joined him looking at the walls. "I was studying them earlier." He admitted. "They remind me very much of Imladris. Of Rivendell." He gazed at the walls. "This here" he pointed to the west wall, "Reminds me of spring, the wildflowers blooming, the trees just starting their buds, and the children playing."  
  
Gandalf and Legolas followed him. "Ah yes, and north wall, the one with the window, resembles the lush waters of summer. The deep greens leaves, the beautiful full falls glimmering in the summer twilight."  
  
"I agree Gandalf, I thought the same thing, and the children have grown to young adults." Elrond mused. "And this wall" he pointed to the east wall, "reminds me very much of autumn."  
  
Legolas touched the trunk of a painted birch. "The canopy of golden leaves," he ran his fingers longingly on the painted white bark, "the bright bark, the rich mossy green floor. It is stunning. It makes me long for home." His blue eyes misted slightly but he quickly regained his composure. "It is not yet complete though is it?"  
  
"Nay Legolas, it would seem to be a work in progress, one of the many on the walls in this," Elrond paused thoughtfully, "this place."  
  
Jess made as much noise as she could when re-entering the apartment. They took the cue and went silent. Legolas sat on the glider and rocked smoothly.  
  
****************************************************  
  
"There you go JessiLee." He said at last. He had completely disassembled the computer and explained it all in detail to her before completing the installation. He flipped the switch to turn it on. "I also brought you a UPS with a surge protector" he smiled "I can't afford to build you four computers a month."  
  
"Sorry daddy." She threw her arms around him and hugged him hard. "Thank you so much for this."  
  
"Are you okay?" he asked surprised at his daughter's sudden and uncharacteristic affection towards him.  
  
"Yes daddy. I'm fine, just tired I think."  
  
"Should we check on your mother before I leave?"  
  
"No, that's okay dad. She needs her sleep."  
  
He eyed her suspiciously but relented. "I'll see you next weekend?"  
  
"Sure dad." She kissed his cheek. "Bye." He left and she locked the door behind him. Then she raced to the computer and logged on.  
  
****************************************************  
  
She logged on as Ping not wasting any time. She needed help and she needed it quick.  
  
"Ping! You're back."  
  
"I am Giz, and I need help."  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"Remember how I was thinking about books becoming real and all that?"  
  
"Yes, I remember."  
  
"Well it happened."  
  
"What?"  
  
"The sites you sent me to, I downloaded some character profiles and some stories from them and the actual characters appeared here in my home."  
  
"No way."  
  
"Yes, way, and I don't know how to get rid of them."  
  
****************************************************  
  
"Is the machine repaired? Can we return home?"  
  
"What?" She spun and looked at Legolas standing behind her. "Don't do that to me, you scared me."  
  
"I am sorry Jess." He smiled at her.  
  
She melted. "Are you sure you want to go home?" she asked.  
  
"Of course, I do not belong here in your world. Mine is quiet and peaceful and filled with music and magic. There is no other place like it and none I would rather be in."  
  
"Of course." She sighed. "I am trying to find out what happened and get help in getting you home, but I don't know how long it will take or even how to do it."  
  
Gandalf joined them. Legolas looked hopefully at the screen as she continued typing.  
  
"When can we expect to be returned to our proper place and time?"  
  
"She does not know." Legolas stated wistfully.  
  
"Very well then, we will simply explore our new surroundings while we wait."  
  
"No!" Jess heard him and stopped typing. "Don't go out there."  
  
"Why not Miss JessiLee?" Gandalf asked.  
  
"There is something I haven't told you yet." She squirmed. "Give me one minute okay? I will tell you in a minute."  
  
****************************************************  
  
"Giz"  
  
"Ping, what happened?"  
  
"Listen, I only have a minute. First, my last computer did that weird green scrolly thing and then blew up, and I mean blew up. It was charred."  
  
"So, you obviously have a new computer?"  
  
"Yeah, my dad took care of it for me. Okay, second, Gandalf, Elrond, and Legolas are here in my apartment with me, right now."  
  
"What the hell are you talking about? They are not real, they are imaginary book characters."  
  
"Giz, they are standing here watching the data on my screen. I don't think they'd agree with your assessment of them."  
  
"Ping, Are you okay? I'm sending someone there to help you."  
  
"NO! Do NOT send anyone yet. There is more. Wait, I'll brb."  
  
****************************************************  
  
"Gandalf." She needed to tell him now.  
  
"Yes?" He had been watching her type. "Ping?"  
  
Wide eyed she stared terrified at him. "Do NOT call me that. It is VERY important you NEVER call me that."  
  
"Very well."  
  
"Gandalf, you know how I kind of somehow brought you here? Well," she paused and took a breath. "I brought some others here too." Breaking out in a cold sweat she was rubbing her fingers together nervously.  
  
"Everything will be fine Miss JessiLee. I assure you. I know that others are here." He touched her head gently and she calmed down and took a breath.  
  
"The others you don't know about are the problem Gandalf." She again stared at her fingers nervously. "I brought two others I didn't tell you about yet."  
  
Legolas and Gandalf stared at her expectantly.  
  
"I brought this." She pulled the one ring out of her pocket. Gandalf visibly upset backed away from the ring. "And, Sauron." She added.  
  
****************************************************  
  
"Ping, Ping, Are you there?"  
  
"Hold on Giz"  
  
****************************************************  
  
She stared at Gandalf again waiting for some kind of response. Legolas was pacing nervously. "I will get Lord Elrond. He must know of this at once." He ran nimbly down the hall to Kat's room where Elrond was looking at her wound. She was still sound asleep.  
  
"Sauron?" Gandalf asked incredulously.  
  
"Yes sir." Suddenly she felt like she was a five year old confessing to having stolen a candy bar.  
  
"Sauron?" he repeated.  
  
"And the One Ring."  
  
Her UPS beeped one quick warning. She whipped around and logged off and yanked the power cord and the network cable out of the wall quickly. The lights in the room flickered briefly and then went out. It was still light out, the sun hadn't set completely, but it cast yellow and orange hues across the room through the northern exposure. The computer was safe, but she was scared to death.  
  
****************************************************  
  
Waves rippled across the surface of Lake Michigan. Boats rocked. Out over the lake a dark form took shape, dissolved and took shape again. The waters crashed into the shores in Chicago, Michigan City, Manitowoc, and Muskegon at the same time. The dark form drifted across the surface of the water, destroying everything in its wake. The cities and surrounding suburbs went dark.  
  
Smith slowed his pace not by choice, but by necessity. The drain was excruciating. He was being drawn along with the rest of the power, to the center of the lake. He resisted.  
  
****************************************************  
  
"Sauron?" Gandalf's voice echoed in the strange light glowing in the room.  
  
"I'm sorry." Jess whimpered.  
  
"And the One Ring?" He took her hand in his but did not touch the ring. "You are not the ring bearer."  
  
She pulled out the ring from under her shirt, the one she had worn since she was ten. "I know I am not the chosen ring-bearer, but I've worn this one around my neck for seven years now. Please trust me, I won't fail you. I want more than anything to undo what I've done, but I need your help. I think in part it is Sauron causing the power drains and surges here. And to tell you the truth, I don't want him to stay here, I want him gone too."  
  
Elrond joined them and heard enough of the conversation to know what had happened. "The one ring" he said with awe and angst. "and Sauron." He looked at Jess, then Legolas and at last Gandalf. "Sauron will not rest until he has the One Ring. Danger is upon us, more than we had feared. I do not know if my powers here will be enough to protect us, to hide the ring."  
  
"No Master Elrond, I fear they may not be. For if our list of allies in our own time and place is thin, even more so here."  
  
Elrond inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly and walked slowly down the hall deep in thought. Jess just sat staring at the black computer screen. Legolas paced quietly and then went to Jess. "Do not be so distraught Jess."  
  
"You are so kind Legolas." Terror in her eyes and her voice shaking "you should be angry with me, furious, and hate me, yet you comfort me."  
  
"This is not your doing Jess, of that I am sure. You will do your best for your heart is good. I see when I look in your eyes. Your heart is good, pure and true." He rested his hand reassuringly on her shoulder.  
  
"Thank you." her eyes misted and a tear rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away with the back of her sleeve. "My mother! How is my mother?" she ran down the hall to Kats bedroom. Elrond was sitting on the bed next to her. She was still asleep.  
  
"Is she okay?"  
  
Elrond looked up at Jess. "Yes, physically she will be fine. Her head will heal, as will her bones that may have been broken. However, I fear she will not be the same."  
  
"Why? What happened?"  
  
"She does not want to wake up. I believe she is overwhelmed with all that has happened and cannot accept it. It is probably best that you did not tell her about the One Ring and Sauron." He stroked Kat's hair away from her face again as she sighed softly.  
  
"She looks so peaceful, maybe it's best if she sleeps," Jess stammered, remembering she had told her mom about Sauron and feeling tremendously guilty, "But, but, I need her."  
  
"Yes you do JessiLee, and as a father I understand the bond between a parent and child. It is just that bond that will likely be what makes the difference." Elrond got up and left Jess alone with her mom. 


	6. Simulated Sunshine

It was as if a black hole had formed within the Matrix. A black hole that sucked the energy out of everything and everyone, and that black hole had settled itself hovering somewhere over Lake Michigan, sucking the life out of the Midwest towns and cities of North America.  
  
Smith strained against the force that pulled him. He fought to maintain control of himself fully aware that something that did not belong was out there, and it, whatever it was, thrived on the energy growing stronger as every other surrounding entity grew weaker.  
  
What is it? And how do I remove it? Those were the two questions that plagued his mind. There was no answer. The mainframe, the central source of all knowledge and control did not know  
  
Fear. Fear was not something he experienced but rather something he quite gladly instilled in others. Fear had proved to be a successful motivator many times in numerous situations. He would not allow himself to feel or experience fear, because if he did, then it, that unknown thing, would have the control, and Smith would simply not allow that to happen.  
  
More energy was supplied to Smith. The possibility of simply restarting or reloading the Matrix had occurred to Smith. A new world, however, meant massive crop losses and an even larger energy drain, not to mention the fact that he would be farther than ever from finding the Zion Mainframe codes, basically having to start over, which was wholly unacceptable. No, he decided, it would be much better to resolve this problem. There was no problem that could not be resolved, in time.  
  
******************************************  
  
"Mommy, I love you." Jess looked at her mom, her eyes turned blue as they always did when she was sad. Pools of tears formed in them and rolled down her cheeks. She didn't want or need to be brave when she was with her mom. "Mom, I need you, please don't leave me now."  
  
She took her moms hand and lay down next to her and pulled Kats arm over her. She cuddled into her mother; her face turned away from her, and lay there quietly, feeling Kats breath gently exhaled on her hair. "Mommy, please come back to me." She stayed there the night, dozing off and on. Elrond checked them occasionally.  
  
******************************************  
  
Power was restored to the Midwest. As the sun rose on Chicago Smith stood at the shore looking over the lake. A shadow cast across the lake in front of the sunrise. A dark shadow that shifted, but not with the wind and not against it, just randomly changing form and shape.  
  
That is the glitch. Smith attempted to contact the mainframe with his information, but he found communication difficult, garbled, disconnected. He decided he would simply leave the area and have the problem resolved from elsewhere. He had located the source, and that was the key.  
  
******************************************  
  
The sunrise shone on the west wall. Jess woke and looked at the children playing. Most of the walls in the apartment were painted with some kind of mural. The living room was an ocean on a summer's night. Her room was a field of wildflowers and a deep forest filled with fantasy creatures. Dragons flew overhead. Mom's room was the seasons of the earth, the seasons of life, but it was never finished. She would be distracted. She would start one day and then quit for months at a time.  
  
Jess watched the children on the wall. They seemed to be alive in the light as it played against the wall. They moved and danced in their circle, except for the little blonde blue-eyed girl that stood outside the circle, peeking through the tall grasses. Who was that child she wondered? Was it mom? Was it her? Was it no one or everyone? She felt overwhelmed by the events of the past days and the ideas that bombarded her thoughts.  
  
Jess heard her mother's breath even and quiet. She felt it warm and steady. It comforted her and she closed her eyes again and drifted off to sleep watching the little girl watching her.  
  
******************************************  
  
Smith moved west, significantly west, and contacted the mainframe, reporting his finding of the glitch.  
  
The search and scan proved deficient. The drain on energy is unknown.  
  
"It is a glitch over the simulation of Lake Michigan. Reload Lake Michigan."  
  
Reload Failed.  
  
******************************************  
  
The Midwest shut down. No power, no phone service, no transportation, no air. People gasped and grabbed at their constricted throats.  
  
******************************************  
  
Crops failed.  
  
Reload Lake Michigan.  
  
Reload successful with exception of black hole. Unknown glitch must be resolved, cannot be deleted or refreshed successfully.  
  
Assess losses.  
  
Reassign Agent Smith to return to Midwest and resolve problem.  
  
******************************************  
  
The sunlight provided sufficient light but the power flickered off and on. The digital clocks needed to be reset again.  
  
Elrond, Gandalf and Legolas were indifferent to the power outages. Legolas found vegetables and fruit in the kitchen and prepared some food.  
  
"Lord Elrond, what will we do?"  
  
"Legolas. I do not know how we arrived at this," he paused "place" he said distastefully, "however, I do believe we need the assistance of Jacqueline and JessiLee to return to our beloved home. Unfortunately, the woman seems to have slipped into some state of unconscious denial and will not wake. My hope is the child will be enough reason for her to wake."  
  
"Master Elrond, it seems you place a great deal of confidence in the woman and the child. Perhaps it would be wise for us to find our own way. Miss JessiLee was quite distraught when I suggested I would leave and explore our surroundings, however, I think that was due to the fact that she had not warned me of Sauron. I believe it would be best if we were to leave now."  
  
"I have always trusted your counsel Gandalf, and have no reason to alter that now. First we should eat the food Legolas has prepared."  
  
"Or pack it and take it with?" Legolas suggested, anxious to leave the confines of the apartment.  
  
"I am an old man Legolas and this excursion has been difficult. We will eat first, then go." Gandalf seated himself at the table and waited.  
  
******************************************  
  
The One Ring warmed. It scorched a dark circle on the pocket of her jeans. She felt the heat in her thigh and had the urge to put it on her finger. She sat up and felt the heat through her jeans. "Just to see if it really is the One Ring." She justified it to herself. "Just to see if it really knows Sauron, yes, and to see if Sauron is really here. I should do this; it would be the right thing to do. Sauron could be defeated if I did this, yes, I should."  
  
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the ring and examined it. It looked so much like the one her mom gave her when she was ten. It had always been too big for her tiny fingers, even now, and so she had worn it on a chain, like Frodo. This ring, this ring looked just the same, except, different. Warm, glowing, enticing. It should be worn, not hidden. "Yes, you need me and I need you. Together we can solve the mysteries, change the past, the present and the future." Holiness. Reverence. Awe. The ring held her eyes, her mind, her imagination. It spoke to her, not audibly, but she could hear it calling her, telling her,  
  
"What are you doing? What is that?" Kat sat up suddenly, inexplicably, as if she had never been injured. Brilliance. The lights surged all over the Midwest. Intensity. Heat poured from everything and then quiet. Resumption of normal levels of power.  
  
"What is that?" Kat asked again staring dumbfounded at the ring in Jess's hand. "That isn't the ring I gave you."  
  
"Mom" Jess threw her arms around her mother's neck and buried her face in her hair. "Mom, you are okay."  
  
Kat hugged her daughter close. They sat quietly for a while. "Then this whole terrible nightmare is real?" Kat whispered. "I didn't just wake up from it did I?"  
  
"Mom" Jess's face was wet with tears, her eyes red and cloudy, "I'm sorry."  
  
"Jess, honey, whatever happened, whatever this is, it's not your fault. Of that one thing I am sure. But we do need to figure out how to fix it."  
  
"The power is back mom. I can get online now. Maybe I can get help."  
  
"And that ring? Is it what I think it is?"  
  
"I think so."  
  
"You need to put that on the chain with yours. Do not wear it Jess. If it is the One Ring, who knows how it would affect you, or us, or our time."  
  
"It talks to me mom," Jess whispered shakily.  
  
"It can talk all it wants, but you don't have to listen. Listen to me, your mother, not that ring. Oh shit, this cannot be real. Please tell me this is not real." She stared at Jess's swollen eyes and blotchy skin. Her daughter was stressed and scared. Dammit, she was the mom, she was supposed to be the strong one. She pulled Jess close again. "Don't worry sweetie, we will figure this mess out and fix it. We will be okay." She felt her heart grow cold. Fear or indifference? Whatever it was, it would help, she was grateful for it. She would protect her daughter no matter what, just as she always had. No one would hurt her daughter again, no one, ever.  
  
"Jess listen. You will be okay. Put the ring on the chain. If it talks to you, listen to me instead. We can get through this. We've gotten through everything else, we can get through this too. Understand?"  
  
Jess just nodded her head and the tears started again. She leaned into Kat and Kat held her and rocked her gently. Jess had been so close to the edge before, had endured so much, and had come so far; she was not going to let this be what did her in, no fucking way. She would get her daughter through this, to the other side, and she would be stronger for it dammit, even if it was the last thing she ever did.  
  
******************************************  
  
Gandalf, Legolas and Elrond left through the front door and down the stairs. They stepped out into the simulated sunshine that had grown intensely bright and then evened out. Elrond shaded his eyes. Legolas examined the pavement with his feet. Gandalf looked curiously at the cars in the parking lot. The three stood staring at the 20th century simulated world and said not a word. 


	7. In the World

Smith returned grumbling to the Midwest. He had located the problem and reported it, and the mainframe could not resolve it, how could he? Aggravated he marched toward lake Michigan, always feeling the drain of the power both pulling him toward it and driving him away. He began to believe perhaps this power was even greater than the mainframe, but then again, nothing was greater than the mainframe.  
  
His every step became measured as he struggled with the battle growing within. Was he perhaps greater than the mainframe? Banish such thoughts, he rebuked himself, but he couldn't put the thought out of his mind. If the mainframe could not resolve the problem, the problem was greater. If the mainframe sent him to resolve it, he was greater than both the mainframe and the problem. He stepped up his walk with renewed energy and confidence.  
  
***********************  
  
Legolas stared at the pavement with dismay. "Even the earth is hard and empty here."  
  
"No Legolas, I do believe it is simply covered up. Look over there, I see grass and trees beyond those, those strange machines." Gandalf pointed past the cars in the parking lot and toward the small park in the center of the apartment complex.  
  
The unlikely threesome walked carefully across the lot and around the cars toward the small grassy area. There they found cement park benches and a few trees, but were surrounded by buildings that all looked eerily similar to them.  
  
"Each building looks the same. How will we find our way back to the correct one?" Legolas wondered out loud.  
  
"Yes, but the machines are all different. We will simply find our way back as we would in our own forests. Remember each one, the color and shape, and map it in your mind, just as you would the trees. You should have no difficulty doing this." Elrond directed Legolas, who quickly agreed.  
  
They carefully worked their way through the cars on the other side of the lot, Legolas committing the placement of each one to memory so he could guide them back when they were ready to return.  
  
Gandalf heard it first. The unmistakable call of Sauron. He could feel the coolness in the air, the sky darkened and then returned to normal. "Sauron is here, very near, and he is calling the ring. His power seems to be even greater in this world than ours. We must act quickly."  
  
*******************************************  
  
The One Ring made a slight movement on the chain, the fake started to fade in color as the One ring grew brighter. Jess could hear it again, calling her, encouraging her to wear it. She touched it carefully, slowly, and with great reverence, staring at it, listening to it, and wanting it. A feeling she had never experienced before was growing in her, a lustful desire to do this, even though she knew it was wrong, and she began to slide her finger into the ring.  
  
"Stop!" Kat shouted.  
  
Startled and confused Jess looked up at her mom. "What mom?" she muttered, clearly dazed.  
  
"You must not listen to the ring Jess!"  
  
She glanced down at her finger, so close to sliding through the ring. "I, I, I didn't mean to do it mom, really. It's just so, oh, I don't know how to describe it, so strong an urge, so powerful. I don't even know what I'm doing." Clearly shaken Kat gave her a hug and then got up.  
  
"We may not know what to do, but we have company that I bet will."  
  
They both headed out of the bedroom and down the hall. Jess was the first to notice the open door. "Oh shit."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Look, I think they left. I told them not to leave mom, but I think they left."  
  
"Dammit Jess!" Kat started then seeing the fear in her daughters eyes she reeled her frustration in. "I'm sorry honey, but we've gotta go find them, quick! Who knows what kind of trouble they'll get in if we don't. C'mon, get dressed, and hurry up!"  
  
Kat bolted to her room while Jess found some clothes in her own clutter. They nearly collided in the hallway as they headed out the door. "Hurry up Jess!" Kat shouted as Jess stopped at the mirror to check her makeup. "You don't need to be beautiful, you need to move it girl!"  
  
***********************************  
  
Smith picked up his pace moving more quickly than ever toward the lake. He was sure he would be able to defeat this entity that had invaded his simulated world. Then he would indeed be more powerful than even the mainframe.  
  
He felt the power drain but it wasn't affecting him as it had before. He seemed to have overcome some of it already. He began to believe he could defeat it, and then, well then, he would deal with that when the time came.  
  
************************************  
  
"We need to split up mom."  
  
"Jess, can you handle the ring? Can you resist it?"  
  
"Yes mom, I can, I'm sure. I'll go this way," she pointed toward the park, "and you go that way. Don't worry mom, we'll find them."  
  
Kat eyed her daughter cautiously but conceded the need to find the odd trio quickly so she agreed. Kat decided she'd take her car and go east, toward Lake Michigan. Jess made her way across the parking lot, waving to her mom, and into the small park at the center of the complex.  
  
It was midday and the sun high and hot. Kat found her sunglasses and drove slowly searching for Elrond, Legolas and Gandalf in every possible spot. Passing through Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect and Des Plaines she began to grow weary of the search and was just turning around to head back when the sun dimmed and the air turned cold. A low deep moaning sound echoed around her before everything returned to normal. She watched as the dark cloud that had covered her only moments before moved swiftly back towards the lake as if it was being sucked in by a vacuum. She floored it following the cloud. 


End file.
